TEHRAN, Oct. 29 (MNA) – The United Nations cannot verify the credibility of the United States’ statement announcing the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Daesh terror group, and believes that such information has to be confirmed by the various authorities on the ground, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a press briefing.

“We cannot personally verify the accuracy of this”, Haq said referring to the announcement of al-Baghdadi’s death, Sputnik reported.

“We trust the reliability of the various sources of information that have been speaking up, but, obviously, any sort of information would need to be verified by the various authorities on the ground.”

The statements come after US President Donald Trump announced a day earlier the United States has hunted down al-Baghdadi in Syria's Idlib province and thanked Russia, Iraq, Syria and Turkey for their assistance during the course of the operation.

In the meantime, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it had possessed no reliable data regarding the US operation and had reasons to question its credibility.

Al-Baghdadi made his first media appearance in 2014 when the terror group declared itself a caliphate under Baghdadi's leadership. Since then al-Baghdadi made headlines multiple times with claims that he had been killed.

MNA/Sputnik